JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has openly challenged or rebuked him at least three times — stunning for a congressional Republican who has faced his wrath before and yet remains unbowed by pressure to embrace his agenda.
Murkowski is a moderate with a history of bucking her party and Trump when she has felt it was the right thing to do. She was the first GOP senator to publicly break ranks with Trump on his nomination of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary as it advanced this week. Murkowski also said she “strongly” disagreed with Trump’s move to rename North America’s tallest peak, in Alaska, from Denali to Mount McKinley. And she denounced his decision to pardon “the violent offenders who assaulted” police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Murkowski was one of three Republicans to vote against Hegseth’s nomination late Friday, along with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It took Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaking vote to confirm Hegseth.
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But, so far, nearly every other GOP member of Congress has fallen in line behind Trump.
Many of the Republicans who at times challenged Trump during his first term are no longer in the Senate, including the late John McCain of Arizona; Jeff Flake, also from Arizona; Bob Corker of Tennessee; and Mitt Romney of Utah. That has left a diminished group of Republicans seemingly willing to oppose Trump, lessening the chances he will be stymied by members of his own party in Congress.
Beth Kerttula, an Alaska Democrat who has known Murkowski for years, said the state’s senior senator isn’t one to fold under pressure.
“She’s not going to buckle,” Kerttula said. “She’s going to stand up for Alaska and for the right thing.”
Murkowski on Thursday announced her opposition to Hegseth, and Collins later joined in expressing misgivings about the former combat veteran and Fox News host. He has faced allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women, which he has denied.
In a lengthy statement on social media, Murkowski said “character is the defining trait required of the Secretary of Defense, and must be prioritized without compromise.”
“The leader of the Department of Defense must demonstrate and model the standards of behavior and character we expect of all servicemembers, and Mr. Hegseth’s nomination to the role poses significant concerns that I cannot overlook,” she said.
The post on X drew thousands of comments. Many were upset with the senator from one of the country’s most remote and least populous states who is known more for giving long, nuanced responses to questions than for any viral social media moments. But the sharp reaction also reflected the influence Murkowski has and is unafraid to wield.
Murkowski was abandoned by GOP leaders in 2010 after her primary loss to tea party Republican Joe Miller. She went on to win the general election with a write-in campaign and kept her seat. She handed out bracelets bearing her name so voters knew how to spell it as she built a coalition of statewide support and won the backing of powerful Alaska Native corporations and groups.
In more recent years, she has been censured by the state Republican party for a list of grievances, including her support of abortion rights and her vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial related to the Capitol riot. Trump came to Alaska in 2022 and backed her conservative challenger after vowing revenge against Murkowski and other Republicans who had supported his impeachment.
Trump, who during that impeachment trial was acquitted of inciting the riot, has called Murkowski’s vote against him “almost a badge of honor.” He also has said she is “worse than a RINO,” or Republican in name only.
Murkowski, who isn’t up for reelection until 2028, has often defended her party credentials, noting she’s been a Republican since she was old enough to vote. But in 2021 she emphasized that she is “not a Trump Republican.”
Alaska Republican Party Chair Carmela Warfield, in a statement Friday that did not mention Murkowski, noted the support that Alaska’s junior senator, Dan Sullivan, a veteran, had shown for Hegseth. Warfield also noted that Trump carried Alaska in the November election.
“To all Senators, we say confirm President Trump’s cabinet and let’s get to work,” she said.
Murkowski hasn’t been a constant thorn in Trump’s side.
She joined other members of the state’s congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy in lauding Trump’s expansive executive order Monday aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state. She was a driving influence in the decades-long push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, which was achieved as part of a 2017 law signed by Trump. He has often taken credit for that effort and highlighted it when talking about Alaska policy.
Kerttula, like Murkowski, grew up in a political family and said there are a number of issues they haven’t agreed on over the years. But she called Murkowski “a real Alaskan Republican,” willing to listen to all sides and work where possible to find common ground.
“I mean, you’ve got to care about Alaska first. And you try to work with people and you try to get a good result, but you stick by your ideals,” she said. “And I think real Republicans, OK, they’re fiscally conservative. They’re trying to build always a better economy — maybe, in my opinion, too far on development and oil. But they’re someone you can talk to. And I think that’s the kind of Republican Lisa is.”
Most voters in Alaska aren’t registered with a party, and there is a long history here of politicians not hewing strictly to party lines. In the Legislature, for example, while over half the seats currently are held by Republicans, both the House and Senate are controlled by bipartisan coalitions.
The late Sens. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, and Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, forged a deep friendship during their long tenures and worked together to ensure their remote states, the last two to join the Union, weren’t forgotten. Stevens was a mentor to Murkowski.
Murkowski critics say she benefits from a voter-backed measure that ditched party primaries in favor of open primaries and instituted ranked choice general elections. The system, which supporters say is meant to encourage consensus-building by candidates and discourage negative campaigning, was used for the first time in 2022. That was when voters reelected Murkowski and Dunleavy and sent Democrat Mary Peltola to Washington, filling the House seat left vacant by the death of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young.
Peltola lost last fall to Trump-backed Nick Begich in the same election in which voters narrowly rejected repealing the new election system. Murkowski supported her longtime friend Peltola in the House race and appeared in an ad urging voters to keep the elections system.
